But Twitter has emerged as more than a simple low-level gossip platform. It’s proven to be a powerful tool for people to share news with the world. 140 characters…that’s all you need. And sometimes, what starts as innocent keyboard-bashing turns into something a lot more. Something that spreads like wildfire, with retweets from pillar to post that ultimately grips the world.

1. “…now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it…”

On May 1 2011, Sohaib Athar was simply “An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops.” On May 2, he became the guy who live-tweeted the raid that ultimately led to Osama Bin Laden’s demise.

He sent out a series of tweets that charted the raid, starting with the helicopter hovering in the skies above.

This was interesting from a number of perspectives. Firstly, it showed how anyone can be citizen journalists whether they intend to or not. But over and above all this, it helped demonstrate how news of major events break online, from Athar’s tweets all the way through to Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, posting that President Obama would address the nation later that night.

2. “That shark was HUGE. Like dinosaur huge…”

Sitting staring out to sea through his bedroom window in a house near Cape Town, Gregg Coppen witnessed something he would never forget. In the distance, he saw what appeared to be a huge Great White Shark devouring a person which, it transpired later, was a 37-year-old Zimbabwean by the name of Lloyd Skinner. Coppen sent out a number of tweets about what he saw, and it all kickstarted with this one:

Holy shit, we just saw a GIGANTIC shark eat what looked like a person right in front of our house in fishhoek. Unbelievable. — Gregg Coppen (@skabenga) January 12, 2010

It was this tweet, however, that was to prove the most striking – when he compared the size of the shark to that of a dinosaur.

As with the Bin Laden raid, this showed how Twitter can be used as a broadcasting medium by anyone, and brings first-hand accounts that would otherwise have waited hours or days to reach the public domain, into real-time.

3. “…my aunt tiffany who work for whitney houston just found whitney houston dead in the tub”

Aja Dior‘s aunt, Tiffany Dixon, worked with pop superstar Whitney Houston, and she was present when Houston was founded dead in a bath in early 2012.

It’s not entirely clear how Pullard learned of Houston’s fate so far in advance of the news breaking officially. And it’s also worth adding here that the tweets themselves garnered very little attention at the time, it was only after the fact was verified by official news outlets did they come to light. So you could actually argue these tweets didn’t achieve much in themselves, but it does help demonstrate the speed with which news can spread. It’s then the journalist’s job to verify what sources are reliable, and therein lies the challenge.

Almost an hour later, the news hit the wires, kicking off with the Associated Press.

Three things about my flight: I can lay down across 3 seats just fine, it was freezing & I got to see this. http://twitpic.com/4yg4ur — Stefanie Gordon (@Stefmara) May 16, 2011

The photos went viral, with retweet after retweet helping to share her stunning captures across the social sphere. By simply being in the right place, at the right time, armed with a smartphone and a Twitter account, she could broadcast a monumental moment in history to the global masses.

Two weeks later, Welsh did indeed die of a heart attack in Chicago, apparently induced by a drugs overdose. Whether these tweets were deliberate allusions to his future intentions isn’t clear, but it’s remarkable to see one man’s thoughts documented and preserved in such a way, with the knowledge that his visions became a reality.

6. Foiled carjacking

South Africa is a hotspot for carjackings, but one victim took to Twitter from the trunk of his car to seek help. After two armed men bundled him in, the car sped off into the night. But the the man did have his mobile phone and managed to send an SMS to his girlfriend, who then sent this tweet out:

Be on the look for DSS041GP my boyufriend has just been hijacked and is in the boot please RT — Lynn Peters (@onebadvillynn) April 7, 2012

Word reached a private security personnel nearby, who managed to track the cellphone signal while informing local police, who managed to free the man from his ordeal.

Quite why he didn’t simply call the police himself is a mystery, but nonetheless it’s an interesting case that illustrates how Twitter is viewed as an ideal means to spread a message quickly.

7. Plane in the Hudson

Jānis Krūms posted an image of passengers huddled on the wing of US Airways Flight 1549, which crashed into the Hudson River shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport in New York. Krūms had been on a nearby passenger ferry that was redirected to help rescue people.

http://twitpic.com/135xa – There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy. — Jānis Krūms (@jkrums) January 15, 2009

It’s a cliche for sure, but a picture in this case is very much worth a thousand words, which is perfect for Twitter.

8. Obama’s 4 more years

This one pretty much speaks for itself. A simple message that acknowledges what everyone reading the tweet will already know.

Twitter has evolved far beyond a simple microblogging platform to share inane chatter about what you had for breakfast.

A wealth of information is shared every second – most will be forgotten forever, some will achieve short-term exposure via a handful of retweets and others, as we’ve seen, will be etched into our memories for ever.

People used to say, “do you remember where you were when heard JFK was shot,” or “what were you doing when Elvis Presley died”. The answers would vary wildly. Now, there’s every chance that when you’re asked that question in the future, it will start with “…I was on Twitter…”.

Oh, before we go. Here’s one more bonus tweet…

Bonus

Okay, this hardly gripped the world at the time. In fact, it probably only garnered a handful of views. But Jack Dorsey’s inaugural tweet is very notable, and serves as the first public tweet still available on the World Wide Web.